They smell horrible. Where there is one, there will probably eventually be more. They like to pop up where there is fresh mulch or pine bark. We had a bumper crop of them after having several pine trees removed from our property. They come from little white egg looking pods? Look around, you may see some of those.
OMG I have had this in my flower beds before, was coral colored , looked like an octopus, and the odor was like what I would imagine the Devil himself might smell like!
They are the natural consequence of decomposing organic matter. The specific species is determined by the material that is decomposing. Short of removing the mulch, the purpose of which is (among others) to add organic matter to your soil (critical to soil health), there's little to be done except wait for the fungus's "food" to sufficiently decay such that the fungus has nothing more to "feed" on and dies.
Had them last summer. Very weird! Then they started to smell. Yuck!!! Nice to know it has a name. But how do you prevent them so they don't come back???
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